October 3 in LGBTQ History

1961: In Hollywood, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) announces a revision of its production code. “In keeping with the culture, the mores and the values of our time,” the revision advises, “homosexuality and other sexual aberrations may now be treated with care, discretion and restraint.” The new ruling paves the way for the release of films like The Children’s Hour and Advise and Consent, but the MPPDA later amends the revision to specify that “sexual aberration” may be “suggested but not actually spelled out.”

1973: NYC health administrator Howard J. Brown publicly acknowledges his homosexuality saying ” . . . you get to a point where you want to leave a legacy–in a sense this can help free the generation that comes after us from the dreadful agony of secrecy, the constant need to hide.”

1980: Conservative activist and founding member of the American Conservative Union, Robert Bauman, is arrested in Washington, DC for soliciting sex from a sixteen-year old boy.